Bailey Arboretum : A Walk in the Woods

    The one-time summer estate of Brooklyn financier Frank Bailey (whose fountain you may be familiar with), Bailey Arboretum sounds too good to be true: 40-odd acres of green peace on the North Shore, open free to the public, with free parking, 7 days a week the year around. And you are welcome to bring a picnic lunch and your dog (on a leash.)

    This is where we went to see Dawn Redwoods on Long Island. ("Surprise! We're not extinct.") And let me tell you, they are something to see:

I found it more or less impossible to frame a shot encompassing a whole specimen. Maybe next time. The ones growing on the estate here were planted from seeds collected in 1947.

 

Only seven acres are landscaped; the rest consists of rambling woodland paths, none of which are very interesting in late August. Still, they're shady and peaceful:

 

 

There is a dedicated children's garden area, and a small number of aviaries housing injured or otherwise-compromised rescued birds. They have a couple of crows (American and Fish), several red-tailed hawks, and a few owls (Great Horned and Barred).

 

This owl is blind in one eye.

 

    In my opinion, late August is a cruel month in the great outdoors. The birds are quiet, the insects are loud, and the pond scum is at its peak. So I'll be interested to see what this place is like in other seasons. The redwoods are deciduous!

    It surprised me to read that Bailey declares itself "the only accredited arboretum on Long Island and in the New York Metropolitan area." Say what now?  Planting Fields State Historic Park is a pretender? Bayard Cutting is a wannabe? Apparently they haven't applied for accreditation, which is a designation bestowed by these folk. Even more interesting, there are levels of accreditation, such that a golf course or a cemetery may be granted the status of an arboretum, albeit at a low level. (Maybe there's a tax benefit involved in doing so?) The page listing the levels of accreditation has links to lists of arboreta that meet each level. (Bailey is a Level 2.)

    So I'll be studying that list later, looking for more places to go. In the meantime, why don't you take a walk in the Long Island woods?

 

As I Was Saying

 

 

We closed out 2013 with an outdoor hockey game in Huntington, on what had to be the warmest December day on record. This is our capable young nephew in the center there, defending his team's goal. Victory was theirs.

And now it's the New Year!

It was a beautiful day for a walk out to the Fire Island lighthouse today; I think it was our first since 2011, the Year of the Iceberg. There were no icebergs today, but it was lovely.
And there was hot chocolate.

Come late afternoon we saw American Hustle, which might be the best movie I'm going to see all year. Seriously, I might have blown it all on the first day of the year, because that film was off the charts. (Is that still a saying?)

 

Squeezed To Meet You!

Okay, I think we can see these are not your average, lazily-smothering-the-old-tree-type vines; these are some strangulatin' vegetable-constrictors that mean business. Having gotten hold of a strong young sapling, they are Taking. It. Down yessirree.
You'll understand why I made sure to keep moving, and not stand for too long in one spot, when I walked around the Knollwood ruins in Muttontown Preserve with my brother yesterday. The English ivy was so vigorous, so extensive... I swear it was grabbing my shoelaces...

Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

Driving through Broad Channel last month on our way back from an appointment, we passed a sign for the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge and decided to stop in. I'd never been there before, though everyone else I've spoken to since is all "...yeah, of course, all the time...since I was a kid..."

Well, it was new to me. And what a nifty place! Birds birds birds. We only saw a few during our midday visit: swans, egrets, red-winged blackbirds...but there are lots more: ospreys, being brought back from the brink of extinction with the help of custom-built nest platforms like the one I wrote about years ago, and barn owls, who are given barn-sized birdhouses. There are houses erected for smaller bird species, and special ones built for just for bats. Quite spoiled, the lot of them. Here's the big barn-owl boudoir:

The refuge is also home to diamondback terrapins, and many of their nests are right next to the trail, as you can see in the photo below. I can't tell you how long we stood there, marveling at the metalworking capabilities of the turtles, so cleverly protecting their nests, before we realized there was an adult right there, just beyond the cage, watching us! Remarkable creatures.

There are lots of sweeping vistas across the salt marshes, alternating with shady avenues of greenery. In the distance, way beyond the free avian housing, you can see the Empire State Building:

There were lots of insects as well, dragonflies and spiders and bees. And snails, of course.
This guy was in the middle of the path, in the blazing sun. I don't know what he was thinking.

He'll be extinct in no time, behaving this way.

We tried not to startle this tall, exotic specimen:

I was clearly a "casual" visitor, without a great big lens, or even a hat, and felt strangely out of place for not carrying a tripod. Everyone else was fully equipped. The bright sun made it hard (for me) to photograph the flora, but it was there. Much of it, sadly, undesirable, like the Japanese knotweed that was strangling the native yucca in a picturesque, spiralling manner.

If it ever stops raining this summer, I recommend you visit the refuge, which is part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. There's an informative and well-equipped visitor center, the trails are easy for people of all ages and abilities, and it's free. Oh, and bring your camera.

Make Way for Ducklings

In this case, make way for just one duckling, the only one observed so far this season along the route I usually take. The duck and her lone young'un were grazing and splashing in the same spot yesterday and today, followed all the while by two drakes who would try time and again to get close, only to have the mama lower her head and charge at one or the other until they backed off. (As you can see here in this video.) But after a bit, they'd be trying again. Drakes don't care what mama don't allow, gonna follow 'round mama anyhow...

Jamaican Wildlife Tour

Yesterday we found ourselves with an hour to kill before starting our evening shifts at the library, and it was such a beautiful day, the DH and I decided to walk up to Captain Tilly Park, on Highland Avenue, next to Jamaica High School. It's a badly-littered nine acres of water, greenery, and playground equipment that nevertheless serves parents and children, lunchers (like the chap in grey above), and even a few runners seeking a breath of air and a place to stretch their legs. The pond needs an aerator to keep down the algae, and unfortunatly, that piece of equipment is, for some reason, moored by two ugly, broken-down, red plastic barrels with the word "danger" unevenly hand-lettered on them in white paint. Despite its visual flaws, the park has a lot of what wildlife wants: water and fallen, rotting tree trunks offering food and shelter. Of course, we brought cameras. (The photo of the monument was taken by Ken.)

Together, We Can...

...all share this log. Yes! The spirit of reptilian brotherhood allows four to bask on a submerged log that might fit only two less cooperative individuals. Or so goes some such anthropomorphic nonsensical imagining on my part as I snap these red-ear sliders basking in Goose Pond. Great name for the pond, by the way. Took a lot of imagination, that did: "Yeah, we can't get rid of these Canada geese no way, no how. They've completely taken over! Might as well name the durned pond after 'em!"

Take A Gander At THESE Babies!

Midway through spring, and it's time to make way for goslings. Canada geese are year-round residents of our cities now, and these were hatched in the park. Still too young to be far from the gimlet eye of their parents, they're already quite sizable, except for comically short wings.

Circle of Life and All That

And to think I almost left my camera home again...
On our walk yesterday, DH and I were lucky enough to see some real wildlife, a red-tailed hawk that had caught a squirrel.
Here I thought I was the squeamish type: can't watch slasher flicks, clean a chicken, dispose of a dead bird, or even make hamburger patties without feeling slightly ill. Yet it didn't disturb me to watch the hawk eat lunch. (Okay, there's one shot where you can see the squirrel's face, and that is kinda sad. But overall, no.) Raptors gotta eat, and for all we know the squirrel was sick and slow and sufferin' and now he's gone out in a blaze of glory; way better than getting run over by a car. It was great to be able to observe it so closely. (Um, the hawk, not poor Rocky there...)
Oh, and for the non-squeamish amongst you, there's a few more shots on my Flickr page, and a
half-minute video here.

What's The Moral Of This Story?

"Did you bring your camera?"
DH asks me this as we start off around the park. "I thought you were going to document your walks," he said.
"Pfft!" I replied. "This kind of day makes for a boring photo in this park: it's overcast, slightly humid so things aren't crisp, no evergreens or blue spruce or fresh snow for color contrast, just gray and light brown and, and... look at the ugly sludgy muck of leaves and debris in the pond.
Sure, there's a wasp's nest, but it's too high up and it's gray like everything else...no visual oomph."
On and on I blather like that for the first mile-and-a-half circuit. DH takes off to run the next loop, and I continue walking.

Over the bridge.
Where I see the backhoe.

There's a bright yellow Caterpillar in the water, up to its lugnuts, scooping leaves into the bed of a sky-blue truck, while men in dark green uniforms chainsaw dead branches off trees nearby.
Just...just popping out of the gray-brown-white background of trees.
Rats.

Oh yeah: the moral is: always bring your camera.

Resolutional Zeal Is Maintained!

But of course, the year is still young. Lots of time left to drop the ball, but! So far, so good:

The day before yesterday, DH and I stopped at the park on the way home from work and

did 1.5 miles around the park. Then yesterday, I did a 3.5-mile-loop around town here, and made an important discovery: my neighborhood is extremely boring. It might be the deflated Christmas balloons and grimy wire-armature penguins and reindeer on every lawn; they are exquisitely dismal on an overcast January morning. But hey, three and a half miles! (I measured it with string on a street map after I got home. Like the pros do.)

Sunday there was no walking, but there was some strolling through the AMNH.

Natural Wonders

Yesterday I did two miles before work, and was rewarded with the sight of the magical tableau above: a young buck just raising his head at the sound of an approaching canine! Who knew these delicate creatures had ventured so far into the suburban landscape? This is the kind of wondrous experience that makes a daily walk in the neighborhood worthwhile.

Today, of course, there was a nasty little cold snap and the "daily walk" was the eight blocks round trip from the parking garage to work. But resolutional zeal will resume tomorrow!

This guy is my inspiration.

The Pagan-Fletcher House, Valley Stream

Happy New Year! While resolutions were still fresh and easy to keep, I went for the first of many many daily 3-mile walks I plan to walk this year. Really! I promise! And if I bring the camera on every walk (like I did today) I'll be able to prove it. This is a restoration of an 1841 house near the park.